In this day and age, when slow warez mean a slow board, no matter  how big the board is or how notorious the sysop may be, many are turning  to the latest rage in the pirate community: the courier group. We log on  to boards and see uploads with -MALiCE-, -DESTiNY-, -NDN-, and -MERCURY-  attached to the end of the description. Some courier groups even attach a  small .nfo file, with the staff, greets, and all the trimmings we would expect from a cracking group. But just who are these guys and what is their   motivation. I recently spoke with Tormented Soul, formerly known as   Gatekeeper, who is in charge of Destiny, and with Denizen, the head of MALiCE, two of the more dominant and effective courier groups around. We talked about where the courier groups began, what happened with the mergers and break-ups, and where they are all going in the future.
    
The entire concept of another courier system apparently came during  a telephone conversation between Gatekeeper and Robocop. Robocop commented  on how the cracking group's courier systems were always shitty, slow, and had a lot of problems with organization. Almost overnight, they began a new  courier group by the name of UPS. They recruited what they deemed to be the best couriers in the courier business and got hooked up with PEPSi MAN out in the Chicago area. Things seemed to be going very smooth a few weeks, and then things began to fall apart for UPS. What apparently happened was that Pepsi Man told a few people different stories on what happened and, in an overnight free-for-all, Gatekeeper, with the help of a few others with access to codes and 3-ways, managed to grab most of the old UPS sites under himself and kick PEPSi MAN, who also alleged that he ran UPS, out. For awhile, there seemed to be two UPS courier systems, one run by Gatekeeper, and the other one by PEPSi MAN. Indiscrepancies in their site list and constant ragging and bickering on Nets such as FelonyNET caused a lot of confusion in the sites and who had who. Finally, a couple of weeks later, PEPSi MAN decided to call it quits for UPS and left it all to Gatekeeper. It was around this time, when PEPSi MAN was  being kicked out, that Denizen stepped into the picture.

The group renamed itself from UPS to MALiCE, and the group seemed to thrive once again. Gatekeeper states that he decided to take a break from  the scene for a couple of weeks and wasn't able to do a lot of calling out.  Denizen, however, states a different story. He says that Gatekeeper was using codes that were meant to be used for MALiCE purposes only to run iCE and INC conferences. INC was then in a total state of disarray, following the leaving of most of the key Senior Staff members, including Cool Hand, Rambone, and  Lestat. So, according to a couple of sources, Gatekeeper began trying to  piece INC back together with what few members were left. And, in doing so,  totally neglected MALiCE. Denizen was then, Gatekeeper's right-hand man, and according to Denizen, he was the one that called most people up on 3-ways  because because Gatekeeper had no long-distance priviledges. Gatekeeper seemed to drop out of existence for awhile and Denizen basically took over operations for the group. Denizen alleges that Gatekeeper used some MALiCE codes to run some INC and iCE conferences. He told Gatekeeper that he needs to get into  MALiCE and basically assert himself. Whether Gatekeeper took the advice or  not is left up to be judged by the public, because not too much later he was kicked out of his own group.

Now, we must note that the stories vary from person to person to  person and seems to change from day to day. In his interview, Gatekeeper  stated that he had no bad feelings towards Denizen and when the group split  apart, they agreed not to rag on each other like the ragging that went on in the first split (the UPS split). Denizen, on the other hand, states that  although it initially started out as a peaceful split, it far from ended up  that way and that Gatekeeper constantly tried to get boards to     ween his MALiCE and Denizen's MALiCE. Then Gatekeeper states that he doesn't hate Denizen, but Denizen seems to have no love loss for Gatekeeper. It is a strange turn of events and all the differing facts makes it rather difficult to figure out who is telling the truth and who is not.

As of late, both courier groups seem to be doing well. DESTiNY   (Gatekeeper's MALiCE) got off to a very shaky and unsound start and didn't  seem like they would last. But they added a few good boards under their belt and have a few good couriers who seem to have the job right. MALiCE continued to grow and expand their horizons and get the warez out to everyone in good  speed. It has become a rag war, as of late, however, since Tormented Soul  (Gatekeeper's new handle) decided to say some rumors on FT that Denizen had  been busted and he was working with the feds. So a lot of ragging went on  about all that.      

What does the future hold for courier groups? Depends on who you  like. Mercury comes and goes pretty fast, but always makes an impact on the scene. NDN may have couriered their last warez and just fold their tents or they may come back strong. The saga of Tormented Soul and Denizen and the big two courier groups is probably far from over. Only time will tell.